Harvest Resources for Families and Schools
As after Easter Sunday. Many Christians call it the Church's birthday - but why?
At this time of year, many churches and schools would normally be holding a Harvest Festival service or celebration. A Harvest Festival is often a service which brings together all ages to celebrate God’s goodness in creation and to remember our responsibility to care for those who do not have as much as us. We might still be doing things a little differently this year, but there are lots of great ideas and resources out there for holding a Harvest Festival celebration at home, school or church.
Resources For primary age A Harvest Story: What is so special about Harvest? http://request.org.uk/restart/2014/10/06/a-harvest-story/
Learn about Harvest in an interactive presentation http://request.org.uk/restart/2014/09/08/harvest/
What is so special about a Harvest loaf? http://request.org.uk/restart/2014/09/08/harvest-2/
Festivals, Food and Faith: How do Christians respond to poverty? http://request.org.uk/restart/2014/06/10/send-a-cow-2/
What is celebrated at Harvest? http://request.org.uk/restart/2014/09/18/harvest-3/
How do we say thank you: A Harvest thanksgiving sheet for children http://request.org.uk/teachers/teaching-resources/festivals-resources/harvest-festival/harvest-festival/
Match it! Harvest Fun: A Pairs Matching Game for Harvest Play this fun Harvest matching game and learn more about the Christian festival as you play http://request.org.uk/restart/2015/09/14/match-it-harvest-fun/
Barnabas in Schools A range of support material linked to Harvest http://www.barnabasinschools.org.uk/harvest-support-material Traidcraft Harvest lesson resources http://request.org.uk/teachers/request-recommends/resources-recommends/traidcraftharvest/ Bible stories for Harvest Barnabas in Schools has a reflective story presentation of a version of the parable about the planting of a vineyard recorded in Isaiah 5. http://www.barnabasinschools.org.uk/idea/reflective-story-presentation-harvest
For secondary age How do Christians celebrate Harvest? http://request.org.uk/festivals/other-festivals/harvest/
There are also some great ideas for Harvest worship, reflection and crafts for children and families to be found at: •
Reading Fellowship Ideas Hub
An idea for a short act of worship for all ages at Harvest Thanksgiving and some Harvest craft and games ideas https://ideas.brf.org.uk/topics/harvest •
Going 4 Growth: a Church of England resource hub to support ministry with and among
children and young people. All age ideas for a Harvest service, plus information and resources http://www.going4growth.com/growth_through_the_year/harvest
• The Farming Community Network A detailed resource pack for the celebration of Harvest Festival https://fcn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Resources-for-the-Celebration-of-Harvest-Festival-1.pdf
Harvest and Creation Activities and Crafts for children •
Flame: Creative Children’s Ministry has a number of great ideas for Harvest and Creation-related story and craft activities, particularly for younger children: http://flamecreativekids.blogspot.com/2012/09/harvest-messy-church-creation-story.html
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Messy Church Harvest has collated a range of activities: https://www.messychurch.org.uk/messy-blog/messy-harvest-ideas
Bradford Cathedral Messy Harvest 2019 Here are pictures of some of the things we tried out for our Messy Harvest at Bradford Cathedral in 2019.
There was bread-making with Canon Mandy. The children had great fun kneading the dough
We listened to the Creation story and there was singing, colouring and crafts.
We wrote prayers of thanks and hung them on our Prayer Tree
Whilst our bread was baking we went outside and planted bulbs, even though it was raining heavily!
Eventually we came back inside, dried off, gave thanks for what God has given us, then sat down and ate togetherincluding the bread we had made!
Happy Harvest Festival!